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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28971453">Nonbender Zuko AU (Outline)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJF/pseuds/LJF'>LJF</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Azula (Avatar)-centric, Fire Nation Royal Family, Gen, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Mentions of Other Avatar Characters, Nonbender Zuko (Avatar), Protective Azula (Avatar), Zuko's Scar (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:42:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,871</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28971453</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LJF/pseuds/LJF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What might have happened if Zuko <i>wasn't</i> a firebender? </p>
<p>(This is an outline, not a completed fic.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azula &amp; Iroh (Avatar), Azula &amp; Ozai (Avatar), Azula &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Ozai &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>144</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Nonbender Zuko AU (Outline)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So someone on tumblr asked me my thoughts on a nonbender!Zuko AU. I meant to just write a few lines, but the next thing I knew, I had almost 2,000 words of an outline. <br/>I'm not writing this fic out, at least not any time soon. I have way too many other Zuko &amp; Azula centric stories in the works right now to even <i>think</i> about this one. But I thought you guys might enjoy reading it anyways.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="">
  <p>Nonbenders aren’t eligible for the throne, which means Zuko would never have been Crown Prince, never have gone to that war meeting, etc, etc. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In this universe, Ozai would just straight up not even bother pretending to care about Zuko in any way, shape or form. He doesn’t even hate Zuko, not really, he just finds him a complete and total waste of space. He doesn’t taunt or torment Zuko the way he did in canon-- he basically just ignores him and more or less just acts like he doesn’t exist. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Zuko, of course, hates this. He hates that he’s treated like he’s worthless, that his father doesn’t seem to care in the slightest bit about him-- but unlike canon Zuko, he’s not delusional enough to think that <em>maybe, if I try hard enough, I can </em>make<em> Dad love me.</em> No, in this universe, his thought process is more along the lines of <em>I’ll show him. I’ll show </em>all<em> of them!</em> </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And so he hones his skills. He trains in various forms of combat-- swords, archery, knife throwing, chi-blocking, the works-- as well as history, strategy, and anything else he might need for a military career. He hopes to eventually become a general, or perhaps an admiral-- he’s a fighter, a natural leader, and someday, they’re going to regret casting him aside. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>He still resents Azula-- the perfect princess, everyone adores <em>her</em> just because she was <em>lucky</em> enough to be born with firebending. But he doesn’t hate her. He <em>can’t</em> hate her. For one very simple reason: </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p><em>Azula is the only one who doesn’t look down on him</em>. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In this universe, where Ozai doesn’t even seem to really acknowledge that Zuko exists, he never tries to pit the two of them against each other. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And since they’re not competing-- not for the throne, or for Ozai’s affection-- and their skill sets are <em>completely</em> different, Azula doesn’t see Zuko as a threat or even a nuisance; she sees him as <em>useful</em>. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p><em>Azula</em> can see the value in Zuko’s talents, can see how hard he tries and how relentless he is in his goals, and sometimes, she even finds herself <em>admiring</em> his drive. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(What would it feel like to have that much <em>passion</em> for something? She doesn’t know. At least he has something he <em>wants</em>, something he <em>needs</em>, and just goes for it. She doesn’t really <em>need</em> anything. All she could ever want and more has been handed to her. She pushes herself to excel in her firebending, but that’s more a matter of personal pride and Ozai’s pushing than anything else.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Does she care about him? Love him? Of course not. (Azula doesn’t know what love feels like, not really. The last time she let herself care about someone, he died at war. She won’t allow herself to make that mistake again, not when her brother is all-too-likely to face the same unfortunate end as their cousin did.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>In this universe, it was <em>Azula</em> who gave Zuko his scar. Not on purpose, of course. It happened when they were younger, and she had just started to use her firebending. She was showing Zuko a new trick she had learnt, he leaned in a little too close, she made her flames just a little too hot, and, well..... (without a firebender’s resistance to heat, it only took seconds. Too quick for him to even scream-- one second he was staring enviously at the flame cradled in her palm, the next he was lying on the ground, passed out from the pain.) (He doesn’t remember it at all, but <em>Azula</em> doesn’t think she’ll ever forget. The smell of burning flesh, her brother’s motionless form on the ground..... for a few moments, she’d thought he was dead.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>This, of course, has nothing to do with why she’s so precise with her bending, why she’s so careful to never have so much as a hair out of place. (It <em>doesn’t</em>.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Dad had been proud of her. His prodigy princess, able to make flames so hot as to burn flesh to a crisp so quickly. He’d praised her, but none of that had soothed the queasy feeling she’d had in her stomach-- one that returned, however muted, everytime she caught a glimpse of Zuko’s permanently marred face.) (It wasn’t guilt. It <em>wasn’t</em>. She had no reason to feel guilty. It was the dumb-dumb’s fault for not being careful enough, everyone knew flames burned!) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Mom had stared at her in horror. Azula had expected her to yell, to scream, maybe even cry-- any of those might have been expected. But instead, the woman had just gaped, eventually shaking her head sadly. “Oh, Azula,” she’d said. “How could you?”) (That’s the last time Azula can remember her mother really <em>looking</em> at her. Ursa never scolded her again, but she never smiled at her, either, if she’d ever smiled much before. She’d reply if Azula spoke to her, but she never initiated, never reached out, never gave any sort of sign that she’d care whether Azula lived or died.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(But Azula had known that their mother cared about <em>Zuko</em>. Which was why, after overhearing a conversation between Dad and Grandfather that spelled a near end for her stupid brother, she went straight to Mom. Azula never found out just what happened that night, or where her mother had disappeared to, but Azulon was dead.) (Good. He <em>deserved</em> it after what he’d tried to do. No one threatened what was <em>hers</em> and got away with it.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>On his sixteenth birthday, Zuko joins the military, and Ozai, glad to get his <em>worthless</em> child out of the way, has him deployed to the most useless and far-off place he can think of-- a tiny, barely manned post near the South Pole. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Azula is <em>fuming</em>. Here they have a talented, loyal soldier who would have made a <em>perfect</em> division head or even possibly a lieutenant, and the Fire Lord just <em>dismisses</em> him like that because of his own foolish <em>biases</em>.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(There has to be <em>something</em> she can do about it, and there’s only one person she can trust to help her, much as she loathes the thought. She’s always found the man fairly useless before, but at least she <em>knows</em> he won’t dismiss her request out of hand, or write her brother off as a failure for something beyond his control.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Iroh is surprised to receive an invitation to tea from his niece. She’s never seemed to like him, although he’s not quite sure why. What does she want from him <em>now</em>?) (He comes anyways, curious, and finds himself both baffled and pleased by the results.) (Iroh’s spent so long seeing all the way the ways she’s like her father that he managed to miss the ways she’s <em>different</em> from him. And he’s certainly underestimated just how important her brother is to her.) (He wonders what that must feel like, to have a sibling who cares, or to <em>be</em> a sibling who cares.) (It’s too late for that now. But it’s <em>not</em> too late for Zuko-- or for Azula.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Katara and Sokka rescue Aang from the iceberg, and start heading for the North Pole. Their progress is impeded by a young Fire Nation soldier with a strange burn on his face, who seems more determined to capture the Avatar than any other. (They don’t know that he’s a prince, because Zuko is set on proving his worth <em>without</em> using his title.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Azula is <em>incredibly</em> frustrated at this point. All that effort she and Uncle have been putting in to try and get the dumb-dumb transferred, and he throws it all out the window in favor of going after the <em>Avatar</em>? <em>Seriously</em>?) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>It takes Zuko a while to realize that he’s fighting on the wrong side, but not quite as long as in canon. He’s loyal to his country and loves his people, but he’s seen for himself that the Fire Lord’s ways are unjust, the evidence of the suffering that the other nations are experiencing is before him, and he’s heard enough from the other soldiers in his unit to realize that conditions aren’t much better in most of the Fire Nation, either. (The men and women unlucky enough to be stationed at such a useless base had been dumped there for a <em>reason</em> after all.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Eventually, he switches sides and joins with the Avatar’s group, set on taking down Ozai and returning the Fire Nation to its <em>true</em> glory. (He pushes aside all thoughts of what this will mean for his sister. He can’t afford to start worrying about her now.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(News reaches the capital quickly. Ozai is <em>furious</em>-- the first real emotion he’s ever shown towards his son, and it’s <em>rage</em>. Azula wonders what Zuzu would think about that.) (He sends Azula to <em>collect</em> her wayward brother.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Zuko can feel a pang in his heart when he and his new..... allies (friends?) are cornered by two girls he’d once thought of as almost-friends, especially when they’re joined by a princess who wields blue fire. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>That feeling quickly morphs into confusion when his <em>uncle</em>, of all people, arrives, clearly in company with the other three. (Since when did Azula and Uncle so much as <em>speak</em> to each other, let alone <em>work together</em>?) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>And things get even stranger when the four of them reveal that they’re not actually here to <em>capture</em> Zuko and the Avatar-- they’re here to <em>join</em> them. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Azula can’t remember what it feels like to <em>want</em> something. But Zuko has <em>always</em> been driven, has been focused on the same goal for as long as she can remember. If he’s changed his mind now, it must be important.) (She doesn’t know how she feels about the war, not really. But taking down Ozai-- useless Fire Lord that he is, who can’t even make proper use of the assets he has-- <em>that</em> she can get behind.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>(Cue Zuko being forced to admit to Aang and co that he’s actually the prince. Cue much angst, drama, and friendship/found family feels between the various members of this combined dream team.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Of course, with all of them working together, Ozai’s downfall is only a matter of time. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>Before long, the war has ended, and Azula is crowned Fire Lord. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But she doesn’t keep the throne for long. As soon as possible, she has the law changed so nonbenders can rule and abdicates in favor of Zuko. (He’s a good leader. He <em>cares</em> about his people. And Azula.... Azula is <em>tired</em> of the royal court, of the capital city, of everything her life has been up until now. She wants to <em>want</em> something, to find a passion that really drives her, the way the other people in her life have.) </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>After this second coronation, Azula travels. Maybe she spends time as an ambassador. Maybe she trains with the Kyoshi warriors. Maybe she rides hog monkeys or dances with dragons or goes sledding on penguins. Maybe she sails the high seas or explores secret tunnels. Maybe she falls in love. Maybe she does all of these things, or none of them at all. </p>
</div><div class="">
  <p>But the war is over, and she has her whole life ahead of her-- there’s plenty of time to figure out what comes next.</p>
</div>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://ljf613.tumblr.com/post/641246661013880832/as-the-resident-azula-expert-i-was-wondering-if">Here's</a> the original tumblr post. <br/>Feel free to use this outline as inspiration for your own stories, just make sure to credit me!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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